Posted on October 19, 2017 under Faces in the Crowd with one comment

 

“ People in Antigonish believe in equality and equal opportunity.”

Meet Hina Shehzadi.

Hina and her four siblings were born in Lyari, Karachi, Pakistan. Her father was an auto mechanic. Their mother never had the opportunity to attend school as a child and wanted better for her children. Getting a good education became a priority.

Lyari was a tough part of the city with violence ever present. Hina witnessed injustices perpetrated on the citizenry including women and children. These experiences motivated her at an early age to want to help those in need.

School became her entire focus. There weren’t a lot of opportunities in the school system for anything other than the basics. Extracurricular activities were non existent.  In High School, Hina took courses in economics, commerce and computers with an eye to an MBA and future employment in a bank.

Upon graduation in 2009, she volunteered with a non profit group to try and get her foot in the door for future employment. This led to a job with a local Women’s Resource Centre where her focus was on sexual and reproductive health rights of women and young girls. Her work took her to many rural villages in Pakistan where she quickly discovered that there are always people far worse off than yourself.

In 2011 she decided to do a Masters program. In order to make this happen, she worked at a full time job during the day and took public transportation to the university in the evening. Traveling alone as a woman, late at night was an uncomfortable and unnerving experience. She received a Masters in Sociology in 2013. After completing her studies she accepted a Legislative Fellowship in the United States . Most of the time was spent in North Carolina where she got to see some top notch American universities. The idea of getting a PhD. became a long range goal.

She returned home to continue her work with the Women’s Resource Centre. She traveled to Nepal and Thailand presenting papers and doing research on several aspects of women’s rights. In 2015, she traveled to Montreal, Canada to attend the training done by Equitas. One of the stated objectives of Equitas is “ advancing equality, social justice and respect for human dignity in Canada and around the world, through education. “ While in Montreal she met someone who told her about the Coady Institute in Antigonish.

In 2016, she was accepted into the Diploma program. Having spent most of her life in big cities, the drive from Stanfield airport in the dark of night was somewhat disconcerting. All she could see were trees on either side of the highway. She wondered what she had gotten herself into.

She quickly discovered that for all of the apparent differences between Pakistan and Nova Scotia, the one thing that was similar was that Antigonish was family oriented . She immediately felt welcome and supported by the people at Coady and the broader community. “ People seemed genuinely interested in me and were willing to learn more about me and my country.” She found the Diploma program both practical and useful. One of the highlights of her stay was the awarding of an Awesome Antigonish Foundation grant for “ An International Evening With Coady participants” held at St. James United Church.

But her studies were far from over. Encouraged by Joanne Tompkins, she decided to enroll in the Masters of Education program at St.F.X and began the next chapter of her education in January of 2017. The focus of her thesis is a comparative analysis of curriculums in Nova Scotia and Karachi in regards to attitudes of young women to sexual and bodily rights.

Hina’s long term goal remains the attainment of a PhD. and she would like to end up teaching in Canada.

In Pakistan, most women cannot go out of their homes without a good reason like work or schooling. Her freedom of movement in Antigonish has spurred her into wanting to learn how to ride a bicycle.

This bright, engaging woman from Pakistan has the potential to be a “ global change leader” and improve the lot of young women  across continents.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on October 16, 2017 under Storytelling with one comment

 

Townhouse Tunes

I watched a four hour documentary on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers last week. This was one of the many bands that got lost in the fog of raising four children. My son introduced me to this group while we crisscrossed the U.S. a few years ago. I only knew Tom Petty from when he sang with The Traveling Wilbury’s. Sadly, Tom Petty passed away last week.

Music continues to be an integral part of my life. I jammed with my daughter, Betsy at The Townhouse on Saturday and later today I will be rehearsing with the Antigonish Chorale Ensemble.

Thought I’d start your week off with a list of “ earworms.”

M usic is the universal language.

O nly The Lonely ( Roy Orbison )

N ights in White Satin.

D esperado ( The Eagles )

A Whiter Shade of Pale ( Procol Harum )

Y esterday ( The Beatles )

M rs. Robinson ( Simon and Garfunkel )

O h Girl ( Chi Lites )

R unning on Empty ( Jackson Browne )

N owhere Man ( The Beatles )

I Heard it Through The Grapevine ( Marvin Gaye )

N Ashville Cats ( The Lovin’ Spoonful )

G et Ready ( Rare Earth )

M onday Monday ( Mamas and Papas )

U nited We Stand ( Brotherhood of Man )

S moke on The Water ( Deep Purple )

I magine ( John Lennon )

N ew Kid in Town ( The Eagles )

G o Your Own Way ( Fleetwood Mac )

S omebody to Love ( Queen )

Choose a letter. Choose your song.

Have a great week.

Posted on October 12, 2017 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

Lochiel Lake

 

I’m starting to think that Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. Lots of family around, great food, no presents or crass commercialism to deal with and the beautiful Fall colors. My Monday column was about reasons to be thankful. I received a very good response. Someone added their own reason to be grateful: having coffee with friends. That is truly one of life’s great pleasures to just sit and chat with a good friend with your hands curled around a cup of hot java.

I want to add one more reason to be grateful at the tender age of 66. I am eternally grateful for “ the power snooze.” Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I could nod off for exactly 15 minutes in the middle of the afternoon and wake up completely refreshed. I’m thinking about calling the Vatican to report a miracle.

I did one of my India presentations yesterday for the ROMEOs. The acronym stands for “ Retired Old Men Eating Out.” They meet a couple of times a month to share food and fellowship. They also bring in guest speakers. And speaking of India, I have started the process of getting my Indian visa again in hopes of going back sometime in November. I have also been invited to volunteer in Tanzania ( East Africa ) and will need a visa for that as well.

With 321 days of sun in Southern India, I decided to pick up some transition lenses that turn dark automatically. This will eliminate the incessant putting on and removing of sunglasses. You all know what a fashion maven that I am ( NOT! ), so choosing a set of frames is a bit of a crapshoot. I tried on several pairs and I wondered if the ones I chose, would look good on the runway. I was assured that they would. Except the sales person misunderstood me as I was talking about the tarmac at the airport! Thanks, T.C. for your help.

And speaking of India, just giving you a heads up that Fr. Abhi Anand from Varanasi, India is going to be giving a talk at the library later this month or November about the “ Railway Children of Varanasi.” I spent Christmas Day with these children ,who were abandoned by their families at the train station in Varanasi. I’ll keep you posted.

“ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana.

History was not my strong suit in university. Spades were!  My knowledge of WW11  is sketchy at best so I decided it was high time that I get with it. Sometimes I can be an “ all or nothing person” so as I stared at the spine of “ The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich “, at a bookstore in Halifax, I wondered about the wisdom of reading a 1200 page tome as a primer on the war. I think I threw my back out just trying to get the book to the car! Anyway, I decided to try and read 50 pages every day. Doesn’t sound like much but those of you who have read this, know that every page is filled with scads of fine print at the bottom of the pages which need to be fully read to give the preceding words some context.

I was astonished to read about the rise and fall of Adolph Hitler. One line jumped off the page. Hitler said that “ it was time to make Germany great again.”

Have a great weekend.